News from Room 52

We are doing a two week unit on the American Revolution.  We have been touching base on some events leading up to this.  Some of the major events we have been or will be talking about are the Stamp Act, Boston Tea Party, Battle at Lexington & Concord, and the Declaration of Independence.  We really had fun playing a game called King’s M&M’s which is a simulation to represent the Stamp Act is and this also brought great discussion.

The students will be presenting a project on Wednesday, May 14^th.  They have a choice to do a report on a historical figure during the American Revolution, write a song about the American Revolution in general or a specific event, or they could find at least ten quotes used during that time and explain what they mean.  On Friday, May 16^th, we will have a test.  They will receive a study guide so they know what will be on the test. 

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We will be constructing the three types of blood vessels with clay in class today!  Students will be expected to show the relationship between the veins, arteries and capillaries.  They will be making a model using red and blue clay.  They will also be expected to label their structure with facts about the different vessels.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out! 

Next week we will be focusing on the blood flow through the heart.  Be prepared to hear your child practicing the “Pump your Blood” song at home; they will be required to recite this song as an assessment! 

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Just a reminder that the MCA tests will be taking place Wednesday and Thursday of next week.  We will be taking all four segments of the math test.  Next week (Monday and Tuesday), we will be taking all four sections of the reading tests.  Please refer to the sheet sent home about our expectations during testing days! 

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We have been working really hard on the skill of multiplying and dividing decimals.  We have recently gotten into long division with two digit divisors, a decimal point in the dividend, changing any fraction into a decimal, and representing remainders as decimals.  Later on in the unit, we will be learning how to do long division with decimals in both the divisor and dividend.  Word problems will be incorporated into each lesson to relate to real life situations.

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We are beginning a new science unit!  It is all about the circulatory and respiratory systems.  We will learn about the four parts of the blood and their functions, the different blood vessels and their functions, the structure of the heart, the flow of blood through the heart and body, the structures of the lungs, how respiration takes place, and the effects of exercise on the heart and lungs.  I have developed a thematic unit (a unit designed to integrate different subjects around a certain theme) in which the students will be incorporating art, music, writing, and math into this science unit.  Technology is infused into every lesson, and the students will be assessed through rubrics.

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My reading class will be starting a language arts unit on figures of speech!  The concepts that will be covered are:

• similes
• metaphors
• onomatopoeia
• alliteration
• hyperbole
• personification

This will be a good opportunity for your child’s creativity to come out through words! 

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My reading class has just finished a end-of-the-tirmester book commercial project.  Their mission was to create a commercial and “sell” a book they read this trimester.  The students had to include the following literary elements in their podcast: title, author, setting, characters (with descriptions), and plot.  The students had to leave the listener with a suspending ending in order to get the listener interested!  We worked with the fabulous Mrs. Brown (our technology integration collaborative teacher) who helped us put our book commercials in the podcast format.  Please check them out…they are connected to the WD webpage under Classroom/Specialist Links (5th grade).

We are currently reading the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.  I chose to read this novel with the kids because it ties in nicely to our Social Studies curriculum.  We have been learning about colonization, and this book focuses around a young European boy and his family looking to make a home in Maine.  This boy, Matt, is forced to survive on his own and is challenged to develop a relationship with a Native American boy.

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The students have recently been doing some hands-on experiments in class.  We have been setting up controlled experiments, finding/recording data, and drawing conclusions based on this data.  We have also been reading about several scientists and how they used the scientific inquiry process to find things out about our world.  This unit will come to a close shortly.

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We are almost finished with our third mini unit.  This unit has focused on volume, capacity, and weight.  The students have learned the formula of finding volume (volume (v) = length (l) x width (w) x height (h)).  They are also solving many real-life word problems in which the students need to read the problem, interpret the question, set up correct equations, and solve the problem correctly.  We have also focused on converting units of measurement.

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